Christian Plessl

Prof. Dr. Christian Plessl is a W3 Professor of High-Performance Computing at the Institute of Computer Science, University of Paderborn. He leads the Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing (PC²), a national HPC center within the NHR alliance. His roles include Director of PC², Board Member of the NHR association, and member of the Sonderforschungsbereich 901.

Education:

• PhD (Dr. sc. ETH) in Computer Engineering, ETH Zürich (2006)
• MSc in Electrical Engineering, ETH Zürich (2001)
• Postdoc at ETH Zürich (2007–2011)

Research Interests: Architecture and tools for high-performance parallel and reconfigurable computing, FPGA acceleration, quantum chemistry, scientific computing, adaptive systems, and energy-efficient HPC solutions. Key projects include EKI-App (FPGA-based neural networks), FPGA4XPCS (X-ray spectroscopy), and HighPerMeshes (unstructured grid frameworks).

Publications: Over 100 peer-reviewed works, focusing on FPGA acceleration, HPC frameworks, and quantum computing. Recent trends emphasize energy-efficient neural networks, FPGA-based quantum computing, and scalable HPC algorithms.

Awards:

• Best Paper Awards at HEART 2023, ReConFig 2012/2014
• Paderborn University Research Awards (2018, 2009)
• SEW-EURODRIVE Student Award (2001)

Grants & Projects: Principal investigator in DFG, BMBF, and EU-funded projects. Collaborates with AMD/Xilinx, Intel/Altera, and Fujitsu. Leads initiatives like PerficienCC (custom computing) and HighPerMeshes.

Labs/Teams: Directs the High-Performance Computing group at PC², focusing on FPGA supercomputing and HPC infrastructure. Active in the NHR alliance for national HPC coordination.